Howard N. Blitman ’50

Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Howard N. Blitman ’50 has served Rensselaer for more than 65 years, as a Rensselaer trustee, adviser, and volunteer. He has supported scholarships and fellowships, the Rensselaer Annual Fund, athletics, and the upgrade of numerous campus facilities, and has earned all four honors of the Rensselaer Alumni Association, including its highest award, the Distinguished Service Award.

We are proud to honor the Blitman Family legacy at Rensselaer, which started in 1910 – the year Mr. Blitman’s father, Charles Blitman ’14, set foot on the Rensselaer campus and began a long-standing family tradition of accomplishment and involvement. Over a century later, Charles Blitman’s great-grandson, Jacob, became a member of the Rensselaer Class of 2017.

1954 – Charles Blitman ’14 facilitates the completion of the Commons Dining Facility and four modern residence halls on Freshman Hill, in time for the incoming freshman class.

1969 – The Charles H. Blitman ’14 Scholarship is established by Bernice M. Blitman, in honor of her husband Charles.

1996 – Howard Blitman ’50 establishes the Civil Engineering Fellowship Sponsored by Alumni in Construction.

2003 – Howard Blitman ’50 establishes the Howard N. Blitman P.E. ’50 Career Development Professor in Engineering.

2009 – The Howard N. Blitman P.E. ’50 Residence Commons opens and is named in recognition of Mr. Blitman’s generous gift to the unrestricted endowment.

Mr. Blitman is a consulting engineer and the president of The Blitman Building Corporation, one of the nation’s most successful and influential commercial building enterprises, located in White Plains, New York.  Mr. Blitman received a bachelor of civil engineering degree from Rensselaer in 1950, and a master of arts in political science and government from the Graduate Faculty of the New School of Social Research, New York, in 1976.